After dipping to a vacancy rate below 17 percent in 2022, retail vacancy increased to 17.11 percent in 2023 and then jumped to 20.47 percent in 2024. While the 2024 vacancy rate is high, a substantial portion of it was attributable to the 30,000 sf former Whole Foods space at One W. Superior. Now that […]
Blog
Armitage/ Damen/ Southport Survey – 2024
Stone Real Estate Research Services has completed its Armitage/Damen/Southport Retail Survey as of year-end 2024, an annual market analysis of Chicago’s three primary boutique neighborhood retail streets. In this eighth edition of the Survey, we examine the fundamentals which created and now sustain the success of these streets. We attribute the streets’ prosperity to the […]
Editorial: A much-needed bit of good news from the retail sector
March 14, 2025 02:16 PM Need a dose of good news? Here’s some, courtesy of Crain’s Ally Marotti: After a decade of vacancy ups and downs, Chicago’s neighborhood retail corridors are hitting their stride. As Marotti reports, a new analysis from Chicago’s Stone Real Estate found that the shopping strips on Damen, Armitage and Southport avenues […]
Stone Real Estate’s Damen, Armitage and Southport Street Survey as Featured in Crain’s Chicago Business
Chicago’s boutique retail corridors are thriving. Here’s why. After a decade of vacancy ups and downs — including a pandemic that changed how people shop — Chicago’s neighborhood retail corridors are hitting their stride. A new analysis from Stone Real Estate found that the shopping strips on Damen, Armitage and Southport avenues are thriving, with […]
Chicago Annual Loop Retail Analysis – 2024 Data
The Loop retail market improved slightly in 2024 as the vacancy rate decreased to 29.78%, down from 30.13% in 2023. As we approach the fifth anniversary of Covid, we can now analyze what occurred during the 5 year period after the March 16, 2020 shutdown. Since the shutdown, Loop retailers have vacated 222 storefronts consisting […]
Stone Real Estate’s 2024 Annual Loop Retail Analysis as Featured in Crain’s Chicago Business
Nearly five years after the onset of the pandemic, 1 in 3 storefronts remain vacant in the Loop as retail vacancy held steady in 2024. The Loop retail vacancy rate was 29.78% in 2024, down slightly from 30.13% in 2023, according to a report from Chicago-based retail brokerage Stone Real Estate. Though the rate remaining […]
Chicago Loop Retail Analysis – 2023 Data
The Loop endured its fourth straight annual vacancy rate increase in 2023, jumping to 30.13% in 2023 from 28.32% in 2022. Significantly, the vacancy rate has now doubled from its pre-Covid level of 14.92% in 2019. In the 22 years that Stone Real Estate Corp. has conducted its Annual Loop Retail Survey, the lowest recorded […]
Loop Retail Vacancy Tops 30% for the First Time
Nearly four years since the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of empty storefronts in the Loop has surpassed a daunting threshold: More than 30% of the central business district’s retail space is vacant. The Loop retail vacancy rate increased for the fourth year in a row in 2023, rising to 30.13% from […]
John Vance, Stone Real Estate Principal, Provides Insight to CBS2 Chicago on State Street Vacancy
State Street downtown has highest vacancy rate ever, but experts say there is hope CHICAGO (CBS) — State Street is a cultural anchor, a shopping destination, and an important part of Chicago’s history. The Loop stretch of State Street has had its ups and downs – in the late 1970s, it was turned into a pedestrian […]
John Vance, Stone Real Estate Principal, Provides Insight to CBS2 Chicago on the Mag Mile
Signature Room at the 95th in former Hancock Center closes permanently CHICAGO (CBS) — The decades-long story of an iconic Chicago restaurant ended suddenly Thursday with a note on the door. The iconic Signature Room at the 95th restaurant near the top of the former John Hancock Center abruptly closed for good on Thursday, citing “severe […]